Blaze
Blaze is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series who made his debut as a background character in Mortal Kombat II. He made his playable debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance as a hidden character, and served as the boss of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. About Blaze First introduced in the series as a non-playable character seen in the background of the Pit II arena in Mortal Kombat II, Blaze was depicted as an elemental being from Outworld shrouded in flames. As his name and appearance suggests, he has control over fire, lava, heat, etc. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Blaze became a playable character and gained more background information. He would later become the final boss of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Blaze's first chronological appearance was supposedly in Mortal Kombat II, visible only as a burning figure in the Pit II background, fighting a character fans have since named Hornbuckle does not come without controversy. Daegon is described in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon as being awoken centuries prematurely, due to Caro losing mental contact with Blaze (because of his imprisonment guarding the last dragon egg) and mistook that for the signal to awake Daegon. Also, in Blaze's Armageddon Bio, Blaze is set free after the egg hatches during the events of Deception, and is unaware that Daegon was awoken prematurely. It's not until Blaze gives the signal to wake both brothers he learns that Daegon had already been freed. If the burning figure in Mortal Kombat II was truly Blaze, that means Blaze had been imprissoned to guard the egg sometime after Mortal Kombat II, which means Daegon could not have been awoken centuries earlier because Blaze would have known. With the Black Dragon dating back to before the first Mortal Kombat and the Red Dragon dating back beyond that, it seems the burning figure seen in Mortal Kombat II could not have been Blaze, since at the time he was already guarding the egg. Appearance In his first appearance, Blaze appeared as a swap of Liu Kang with his torso ignited in flames. Following his return in Deadly Alliance, Blaze had the appearance of a male humanoid composed of blazing lava, only wearing black underwear. In his transformation in Armageddon, Blaze's humanoid shape is twisted into a hulking, monstrous form with a mask piece similar to a ninja's and rock formations resembling armor. His fully fingered hands become three digit claws and his feet became two-pronged talons. 'Storyline' Blaze made his first chronological appearance in Mortal Kombat II, visible only as a burning figure in the Pit II background, fighting a character fans have since named Hornbuckle. Details behind his story were not known until he returned as a secret playable fighter in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, where his in-game biography screen reveals that he is an elemental that had been pursuing a quest until he had been attacked by an ancient sect. The group of holy men, described as still serving the dead Dragon King, captured Blaze using magic and bounded him to the task of protecting the last Great Dragon egg. After the egg hatched (An event shown in Reptile's Deadly Alliance ending), Blaze was able to resume his previous mission. The purpose of this quest, which had previously been left unexplained, was finally divulged in the subsequent releases of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mortal Kombat: Unchained. It is said that Blaze had been created to oversee the strength of all of the fighters in the realms. His creator (shown to be Taven and Daegon's mother Delia in Armageddon's Konquest mode) had foreseen an event when the fighters' power would become a threat to all of existence itself. When this happened, it was Blaze's role to call out and awaken Taven and Daegon from their suspension. However, upon being freed from the egg incubation chamber, Blaze discovered that, in his absence, the power and numbers of these fighters had become too great and that Daegon had already been revived. He sounded the call to awaken Taven.4 He then enacted the plan to bring all the fighters together into one final battle, where the actions of the two brothers would end up determining their fates and prevent Armageddon.5 Sensing that something evil from the Netherrealm was influencing Daegon, Blaze decided to travel there in order to find its source. In Armageddon's Konquest mode, Blaze appears confronting both Taven and Daegon after the former had defeated Scorpion. He informs the two that the quest was not going as planned, and they were not following the guidelines as they were set by his creator. He transports them to Edenia, where the final battle is set to occur and where one of the brothers is destined to defeat Blaze. However, Taven first defeats Daegon, who had become corrupted due to his premature awakening. Blaze then informs Taven that the future of all the realms would then depend on the remaining brother, who needed to defeat him in Mortal Kombat to determine the fate of the rest of the fighters. The Pyramid of Argus then forms in the nearby crater with Blaze waiting atop it for Taven to destroy him. Taven and Blaze battled, and Taven was victorious. However, Taven's victory had neither the effect of killing the kombatants or nullifying their power. Argus considered the quest a failure because it did nothing to prevent Armageddon. This effect perhaps occurred due to Blaze's corruption by the spells put on him at the hands of Onaga's holy men and the fact that the quest was not performed according to plan. Armageddon endings With Blaze being the final boss in both Konquest and Arcade mode in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, all the endings centered around the godlike power that would be bestowed upon the victor as a result of his defeat. This includes Blaze himself, as if he was selected in Arcade mode after being unlocked, he would still be the final boss - thus in a sense pitting him against himself. This also includes your kreated kombatant. Blaze's Armageddon ending states that while he was enslaved by Onaga's men, he was corrupted by the spell that kept him bound to their wills. He then defeated Taven, Daegon, and all the kombatants, and from there, destroyed all of reality. Because of this, it was indeed Blaze that ironically caused the Armageddon which Delia predicted, rather than help prevent it.6 (Thus the player as Blaze "defeating himself" seems more appropriate, becoming in a sense symbolic of his corrupted power overcoming his original design.) Meanwhile, because Blaze is the final boss, in everyone else's ending they defeat him and obtain the power of a god, which brings about a scenario which culminates the character's quest in the epitome of their benefit, although in some endings (specifically the endings of Shao Kahn, Shinnok, Daegon, Taven, Moloch, Quan Chi, Meat, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kenshi, Kobra, Jax, Kai, Mokap, Hsu Hao, Darrius, Kano, and Kira) this benefit is not without its consequences. Again, this also includes a kreated character, whose ending can be personally written as their "biography". The official Armageddon ending achieved through Konquest mode was Taven's self-told ending, which revealed that his defeating Blaze did not disempower or destroy the kombatants, thus doing nothing to stop Armageddon. The version told by Argus that is achieved when Taven defeats Blaze in Arcade mode reveals that Taven's victory actually had the unforeseen and unintended result of increasing the other kombatants powers due to the same corrupting effects of the spell Onaga's acolytes had earlier put on Blaze, thus rendering the quest a failure. Notably, it was Mokap's ending that would have achieved the effect that Argus originally intended, resulting in the would-be deaths of all the other kombatants and stopping Armageddon - though the death toll would include all three sons of Argus himself and Mokap turned into a constellation. Similarly, in Hsu Hao's ending, he is killed from Blaze's death explosion and his corrupt soul is sent to the Netherrealm, where he becomes a demon. Unlike Mokap's ending, however, this only involves Hsu Hao getting killed, not the other kombatants.